A telecoms provider has made £250,000 of support available for councils looking to develop technological solutions to local challenges.
O2’s Local Government Digital Fund will provide digital expertise and technology to help a single council turn plans to improve mobile working, workplace collaboration, or citizen wide communication into a practical reality.
Councils have been asked to submit plans for local technological improvements, which will be judged in a ‘Dragons Den’ style pitching session early next year.
O2 is holding events in Glasgow, London and Birmingham to help council teams submit bids.To inspire local teams to develop bids, O2 is inviting councils to attend a series of events in Glasgow (17 October), London (23 October) and Birmingham (31 October).
CEO and town clerk of the City of London Corporation, John Barradell, said: ‘Local authorities continue to experience a squeeze on resource, while remaining under huge pressure to reduce costs, be more efficient and deliver great services.
‘I believe there’s a lot of potential to innovate within local authority ICT teams and this initiative is an opportunity to unlock some of that talent and expertise and bring them to life.’
Head of local government at O2, Mark Adams-Wright, said: ‘Building on the success of O2’s 2012 Future Fund, where ideas included an app to help tackle local youth unemployment and an e-community project to encourage local economic growth, this year we once again want to help authorities across the UK tackle the challenges in their local area by engaging staff, citizens and communities through technology.’
